Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Vegetable Gardening

Spinach (in the corner at top left), then lettuce, and two rows of radishes

The vegetable gardens have been planted for awhile and last week I took a few photos while we were weeding and picking some produce. Yes, we did get to harvest some lettuce and spinach last week and more this week already. We have been enjoying fresh lettuce and spinach salads. I have been drinking a green smoothie that has spinach and fruit in it. The smoothie looks pretty gross, but it doesn't taste bad. It pretty much tastes like whatever fruit I add to it. We expanded the garden this year and we added some more vegetables this year.

Like I said, we added a couple cabbage plants this year to the garden. I cannot believe how much the plants grew from last week to this week. Last week the girls fertilized all of the vegetables and God supplied us with some rain last week to also help.

These three rhubarb plants were out of control. I took some home and cut it up for freezing. I also baked two batches of rhubarb muffins which our kids and the neighbor kids enjoyed. Some other friends came and also picked rhubarb for freezing and for jelly.

The strawberries are blooming, but no berries yet. Ashlin is waiting patiently for the berries to appear. For Mother's Day, I gave my mom three blueberry bushes so that we can start growing more berries. Produce is so expensive in the store, that we might as well start growing more produce. Too bad that blueberry bushes take three years until they start bearing fruit.

Justin planted the two rows of peas to the left and Ashlin planted the two rows of green beans to the right. We are trying regular green beans this year, but the girls are trying the special garden 4-H project of amethyst beans also. The beans will have purple pods that will turn green when they are cooked. We'll see what happens!

These are our 10 tomato plants. We planted 4 traditional tomato plants and 6 roma tomato plants. I can't make salsa without lots and lots of tomatoes. We also planted jalapeno peppers, green peppers and onions to also go in the canned salsa.

So far the sweet corn and potatoes are not doing the best. The potatoes had to be replanted and are just very small yet. We also planted cucumbers, carrots, zucchini, dill, and I'm not sure what else. The vegetable garden is again a joint adventure with my parents at their farm. The farm is not very far away, so, we can go out and pick produce and help weed and water the garden. Grandpa and Grandma got the fence put back up around the big garden to keep out animals. Some critter has been munching on the peas and beans, so, I put down some urine granules around the perimeter to keep the critters away! Hopefully, it works or else we won't have peas or beans!Take care,Michelle

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About Me

I run a household of six. My husband, Keith, and I have been married for the last 16 years. We have been blessed with four children: Cara (15), Erica (12), Ashlin (10) and Justin (8). I work part-time at our children's school and I work part-time as a retail merchandiser.